The present invention relates to an image recording apparatus having therein a means to record an image based, for example, on digitized image data.
Recently, due to digitization of an exposure means of an image forming apparatus called “a mini-lab”, it has become possible to make a hard copy of image information recorded not only on a photographic film but also on various media such as a floppy disk and PCMCIA-conforming card, CD-R, and MO by an apparatus having one image forming means. Due to this, in many cases, the image forming means is connected with a personal computer (hereinafter referred to also as PC) and with an input device as well as a storage device both attached to PC, by the use of a communication means such as LAN (Local Area Network), WAN (Wide Area Network), an internet connection network and dial-up connection, so that they may be subjected to interlocking operations. Namely, in most cases, it is possible to build the system wherein image information which is taken in by the input device and stored in the storage device is sent to the image forming means by the use of a communication means such as LAN, WAN (Wide Area Network), an internet connection network and dial-up connection, when an operator operates PC, and the image forming means processes image information in the sequence in which the image information is sent.
Presently, even in the case of this image forming system, its high efficiency is strongly demanded, and in particular, high rate of operation of the expensive image forming means is strongly demanded.
When a medium on which image information is recorded is deposited, it sometimes happens that a customer is required to designate the finishing date and hour in A–D ranking (rank A: within 30 minutes at super-express speed, rank B: within 2 hours at express speed, rank C: normal, and rank D: the next day), so that value added derived from the reduction of the image forming time may be offered. Namely, the customer is supposed to select the finishing date and hour based on its reasons and budget. Therefore, the priority order is naturally established for image forming. Actually, however, there are many troubles that an operator makes a mistake in the priority order and a photograph can not be finished by the designated date and hour.
For a customer who desires image forming through the network connecting the remote place such as WAN or dial-up connection, it is possible to order the image forming without leaving its place of work or its home, which results in saving of time and labor.
When there are plural printers which are connected with a network like this, an orderer can send its order data to the image forming apparatus which is set to the condition desired by the orderer, thus the orderer can save time and labor.
Accordingly, an object to be attained by the invention is to provide an image recording technology which can make efficiency of image recording, especially the rate of operation of the image recording means to be improved. The object further is to provide an image recording technology which can record images from image data in the priority order established in advance, and is free from troubles of delayed finishing.